When I Mistook My Arch-Rival for My Dao Companion - Chapter 21

Chapter 21

When Xiao Jingyu smiled and said, “I’ll take your word for it,” Fu Guzhou smiled back and whispered, “It’s not just a kind wish; it’s a fact.”

This was because he had already seen the future Xiao Jingyu; he knew that eventually, Xiao Jingyu would master the Cold Ice Heaven-Heart Manual and become the head of the Xiao family.

After arbitrarily and forcibly interfering with the original course of events, Fu Guzhou prepared himself to be drawn into an even deeper state of delusion.

To be honest, Fu Guzhou possessed a mysterious self-confidence. He felt that aside from his guilt toward his friend and his longing for his Master, he had no other weaknesses. Thus, he very decisively slashed open the illusion once again.

Fu Guzhou muttered an apology while unceremoniously landing a sword strike on his friend’s body; the illusion shattered instantly.

The things before his eyes underwent another massive transformation.

At this moment, he seemed to be standing on high ground, watching flames fill the distant sky. Fu Guzhou began to regret his actions.

He had been careless. Indeed, one cannot mess around in a dangerous place.

Fu Guzhou’s current situation was extremely awkward: he had absolutely no control over his body.

The previous illusions must have been lures to make him lower his guard.

The first time, Fu Guzhou used his own body with a high degree of control. The second time, he acted more as a spectator; because he wanted to change the original course, he merged into the body of his past self, yet he could still make moves he wouldn’t have originally made when he wanted to come out.

But now, a heaven-and-earth-shaking change had occurred: Fu Guzhou had completely lost control of the body. This went far beyond a mere increase in “immersion” or “depth of control.”

Just as Fu Guzhou was feeling deep resentment over his restricted movement, his body stared at the sky full of fire and spoke a sentence: “It seems to be a very powerful fire-attribute demon. With the wind aiding the fire, it is indeed a very good candidate for a contract.”

“Since it’s a good candidate, why don’t you hurry up and play the hero saving the beauty?”

Fu Guzhou was already feeling uneasy about his own emotionless voice, so hearing another familiar voice nearly made him jump in shock. Fortunately, his body was not under his control, sparing him from making a fool of himself.

Only then did Fu Guzhou calm down and carefully sense this body. He kept telling himself: this is my body, this is my body. Slowly, the Fu Guzhou who had been unable to move—as if isolated on the outside—finally began to share the other’s senses completely, to the point where he could fully feel exactly who was beside him.

Li Chengyuan. The boy Master once praised for his vast knowledge. However, the Li Chengyuan of now was very different from the one in his memory. This version of the man was clearly mature, and his clothing was more complex than it had been in the early years by more than a little bit.

Fu Guzhou was internally startled. This was clearly the attire of the Sect Leader of the Tianji Sixiang Sect. Exactly what point in time was he in? How had Li Chengyuan become a Sect Leader?

The Tianji Sixiang Sect and the Tianji Pavilion belonged to the same lineage but had split into two sects. It was hard to say which was more powerful. As for why Fu Guzhou knew the young master of the Tianji Sixiang Sect, it had something to do with his Senior Brother.

Now, simply seeing a Li Chengyuan who was so different from his memory made Fu Guzhou sharpen his focus, as this might be part of his lost memories.

The Fu Guzhou of this time had clearly undergone a massive change from the seventeen-year-old version. His speech alone was cold enough to drop dregs of ice: “Someone who can use such flames does not need me to play the hero. Furthermore, how does the Sect Leader know the other is a ‘beauty’ and not a man?”

Li Chengyuan snapped open his folding fan and laughed loudly. “Who says a man cannot be called a beauty? Our little Guyang is also a top-tier beauty.”

Sword light flashed, and the longsword was already at Li Chengyuan’s neck. “Sect Leader Li, as a leader of a sect, please mind your words and actions.”

This was a move full of threat. Trapped inside the body but unable to move, Fu Guzhou nodded in satisfaction. He had wanted to do that to Li Chengyuan for a long time, but never had the chance. He hadn’t expected his self in this memory to be so brave!

Li Chengyuan seemed even closer to him than before; he didn’t look offended at all. He just smiled and said, “If you go too late, be careful that the demon might already be dead.”

Fu Guzhou said nothing.

As a seventeen-year-old, the “internal” Fu Guzhou tasted a different flavor in this silence. But exactly what it was, even he couldn’t say. It felt as if he didn’t particularly want to contract a demon, but for certain reasons, he had no choice but to resort to this inferior plan.

Unfortunately, Fu Guzhou was, after all, a Fu Guzhou without memories; he couldn’t truly experience the other’s emotions. He just felt a bit sad.

The future self he thought was “bad” seemed to have many difficulties of his own.

The fire burned for nearly the entire night. When the sky began to turn white and the first touch of morning light hit the earth, Fu Guzhou finally left and headed toward the demon that perfectly suited his attribute.

As he walked in, a thick scent of blood nearly swallowed him whole. Fu Guzhou felt his body frown slightly, but he still walked firmly toward the center of the battlefield.

Bypassing countless severed limbs and broken arms, he finally found that faint breath—the demon lying on the ground, nearing death.

Fu Guzhou didn’t know how his past self reacted, but knowing some of what happened later, he was a bit startled. Because that demon was actually his Dao companion!

So he and his Dao companion met under these circumstances.

Even though he knew this was just a memory, Fu Guzhou couldn’t suppress his excitement. If he could, he wanted to hurry up and heal the man to leave a good impression.

Who would have thought his first words upon seeing his Dao companion would be sarcasm, and his second would be “You are going to die.”

The Fu Guzhou who had been trying to fight for control of the body gave up the struggle and silently shrank back. In this situation, his Dao companion would definitely hate him to death; it was better not to have control of the body.

Fu Guzhou simply stopped fighting for control and observed this segment of memory seriously.

To put it simply, his past self had already experienced the Changyuan Secret Realm. The Immortal Sects were in an awkward, weakened state. At this time, Fu Guzhou’s cultivation was only at the Golden Core stage. Perhaps due to his state of mind or an eagerness for success, he had hit a bottleneck despite only being at the Golden Core stage. He wanted to contract a powerful demon a so-called contract beast—to improve this situation.

Don’t be fooled by his icy demeanor and his “strong-arm robbery” attitude; based on Fu Guzhou’s understanding of himself, he was likely far less cold and calm than he appeared.

The other’s sentence, “Without those old fellows pressing down from above,” truly made his past self suffer a wave of pain. Even the Fu Guzhou trapped in the body without control felt a sting at that moment. Later, his attempt to forcibly contract Wenren Qian scared the current Fu Guzhou.

That move was truly reckless. If it went wrong, both might have died. Fortunately, he stopped in the end. But in Fu Guzhou’s view, this stopping wasn’t because of the possibility of both dying, but because he fully understood the other’s refusal.

Since he used an Equal Contract, a large part of him wanted to find a combat partner he could fully trust. But when the other was completely unwilling, reasons like “wind aiding fire” or the uniqueness of the other’s fire couldn’t make him continue. So he chose to give up.

Fu Guzhou actually felt quite distressed. Having gone through the Changyuan Secret Realm, the people closest to him had left. Countless powerful elders who had once taught him a move or two had all departed. The Immortal Sects were awkward, and the Demon Race stood alone at the top. At that time, the Immortal and Demonic sects likely had to act according to the demons’ whims.

In such a situation, Fu Guzhou had to become stronger to leave something behind for the Immortal Sects. At first, they could rely on the few remaining elders, but later, if no young cultivators rose up, the Immortal Sects would truly decline. Yet, even in such a situation, he stopped at the last moment.

Perhaps when he thought of Master saying demons were wild and hard to tame, he first thought of Master saying that all demons long for freedom. Therefore, it was best not to forcibly contract demons, because every demon is just like a human—an independent individual with their own heaven and earth for cultivation.

Fu Guzhou seemed to hear the “him” controlling the body arguing back: They want demons to have a place to cultivate, but in the end, the demons slaughtered them all. Yet despite this argument, the version of him drawing the array a second time still gave up in the end.

Amidst the sadness, Fu Guzhou felt a bit happy. At least this proved his past self hadn’t turned “bad” yet; he still had a bottom line in his heart.

About a quarter of an hour after the body left, Fu Guzhou noticed something was wrong. Why did his body suddenly stop walking? There was no partner-in-crime with him here!

While feeling strange, a flash of inspiration hit Fu Guzhou. He moved his body, and sure enough, his body moved according to his will.

Fu Guzhou gave a cheer and happily went back to try and earn some “favorability points.”

Even though he knew this was an illusion, there was no harm in being a bit nicer to the person before shattering the illusion, right?

Upon returning, Fu Guzhou saw that Wenren Qian was indeed still lying in the same spot, the ground a piercing scarlet.

Seeing him, Wenren Qian wasn’t surprised. He only asked, “What? Do you regret it?”

Fu Guzhou felt inexplicably embarrassed. Returning like this did indeed look like he regretted it, but explaining it would create a huge discrepancy from his “past” self.

With the way he was before, he probably wouldn’t have explained even if he were misunderstood.

Fu Guzhou felt it was a bit odd—he wasn’t the type of person who liked to keep everything bottled up, so how did he end up like that later?

But current matters were more important. Fu Guzhou quickly pushed aside this awkwardness and said with a cold face: “Meeting is destiny. I’ll give you a bottle of pills.”

With that, he pulled out the best medicine on his person.

Then, the Fu Guzhou who had just been acting like a high-and-mighty Immortal Venerable almost broke character.

Uh… the best bottle of pills he had on him right now was only of “lower-middle” quality—the kind with very average healing effects.

So the question was: did he, wanting to brush up on favorability, really want to take out such an embarrassing bottle of medicine?

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